Friday, June 17, 2016

Currently: June

Enjoying: The second trimester of my pregnancy! Although the
first trimester wasn't too bad for me, I definitely feel more like
myself and like I have more energy now, which is really nice. Plus,
Henry is in a place where his sleep/nap schedule is really consistent
and so I'm also enjoying the predictability of our days. It's great to
be able to do fun activities with him in the morning, and then to be
able to have 2-3 hours to myself in the afternoon to get things done.
Plus, since Cam works from home, often I'm able to go and run errands
solo in the afternoon while he naps which is awesome. I'm just really
trying to savor how nice our schedule is right now, because I know that
come October things are definitely going to change :)

Making: Plans for the rest of the summer...or trying to at least! I feel like on one hand, I do like to leave space in our schedule to dothings spur of the moment, I also get a little stressed when plans are not on the calendar in advance. I just feel like the summer always goes by so quickly and if you don't set concrete dates for things, then they probably won't end up happening.

Cooking: A bunch all of the sudden! While I haven't had terrible nausea or food aversions with this pregnancy, for awhile, cooking food, specifically meat and vegetables just didn't sound all that appealing and I wasn't feeling very inspired when it came to meal planning. I kind of just made the bare minimum of meals I needed to each week and stuck to familiar recipes. But the past few weeks, I feel like all the sudden I'm motivated to cook and try new recipes again! (Also, the cool rainy weather we've had in Portland lately definitely makes me want to spend more time in the kitchen) This week, I've made this buffalo chicken salad that I love (and I even found pasteurized eggs to make the homemade mayo preggo safe!) and I also made this bison chili. Two nights ago, I made this crockpot pork with Cuban-style black beans, and served it over cauliflower rice, which I totally don't mind if it's covered in homemade guac :) Last week, I made these stuffed peppers and then this Paleo-ish white chicken chili which was SO GOOD. (I say Paleo-ish because the recipe is actually Paleo but I proceeded to top mine with a ton of shredded cheese....mmm! I also added some frozen corn to it and used corn starch instead of potato starch to thicken) Oh, and then I used this recipe to make homemade galette dough (and then kind of followed these steps on how to make it) to use up all the raspberries we've got growing in our yard. Yay for productivity in the kitchen!

Reading: The Nightingale - I started it while we were camping and read a bunch, but then I haven't really made time for reading since we've been home. So far I really like it though, it's a good summer read and you should definitely check it out if you like historical fiction set in WWII Europe!

Wanting: To paint our walls white! They're tan right now and perfectly fine, so painting our them isn't super high on our priority list at the moment. Cameron would really like to paint them gray, which would be fine, but I've been seeing so many photos of older homes with white walls and it just looks so bright and beautiful! (This recent home tour on Cup of Jo has totally given me the itch!) My only hesitation (aside from the fact that Cam doesn't want to...ha) is that our walls are a textured plaster so I'm not quite sure it would look as crisp...but I think it could still be so pretty!

Looking: For ideas of how to keep Henry entertained once the baby comes. I know I still have a few months, but I know I'm going to need quite a few tricks up my sleeve to keep my little busy boy occupied while I'm nursing, especially since newborns tend to do that a lot. A lot of moms have recommended making a special box of toys or activities that he can only play with while I'm nursing, but I'm open to suggestions on specific things that will really help engage a two year old!

Wishing: Our basement project would hurry up and be done! Cam is in the process of finishing our basement himself (with the help of his family) and while it's so awesome that he's doing it and I really do appreciate all the hard work he's putting in, it's consuming a lot of his time right now. The plan is for him to move his office down there once it's done, and then we're going to be moving our bedroom to his office, and making our room the new baby's room. So basically none of that can get started until the basement is finished. This time around, I really don't care as much about having the new baby's nursery all done right away since I know he'll be sleeping in our room for the first few months anyway. But still it would be nice to have the basement done so we could at least start the process of moving all the rooms around. Plus, even though I've told Cam I don't care when the basement gets finished, he's a very goal-oriented person and it's hard for him to focus on doing other fun things until this project is done. And (selfishly) it's hard for me to have Cam work all day and then go down and work on the basement for hours at night because as much as I love Henry, that's a really long time for me to spend by myself with a toddler...ha! But I know it will eventually get done and it will all be worth it :)

Eating: Ice cream for dessert pretty much every night. It's a problem. Ha.

Loving: That I scored two pairs of Bogs boots for Henry on Amazon this week for 50% off! These boots are so awesome for little ones (he's worn them in the snow, rain, to the beach, and hiking!) but at $50, they're kind of pricey. Amazon had a bunch of pairs in random sizes and patterns that were in the $20-$25 range so I snagged them in bigger sizes for him to wear down the road, and it's awesome knowing that he'll have a little brother who can wear them too because they seem like they're really well made! I got Henry these and then these (but they've already gone up in price since I bought them) and then I think this pattern is really cute so I may go back and order those too - but Amazon sales seem to be very random, so my apologies if the sale prices are no longer available when you click on the links! (Girl mamas - they have so many cute girl prints on sale too! I would totally buy these if I had a daughter!)

Hoping: That all the dads out there have a wonderful Father's Day! Unfortunately I won't be able to be with my own dad since he's in Michigan, but I'm looking forward to celebrating my husband (and father-in-law and brother-in-laws) this weekend! Henry is lucky to have such a great dad :)

Needing: To walk more! I feel like now that Henry wants to walk (aka run) everywhere, I'm always chasing him but I don't necessarily go for longer walks as much as I used to when I was pregnant the first time or when he was a baby and would nap in his stroller. I'm definitely going to try to fit in some more dedicated walks over the summer months!

Listening: To the Radiooooo app - my sister told me about it and I think it's pretty cool! Basically when you open the app there is a big map and you click on a country and choose a decade and it plays music from that time. It's find it's good background music to have on when I'm cooking or playing with Henry :)

Wearing: These sunglasses that I recently picked up from Nordstrom. I'm trying not to buy any maternity clothes this summer since I have quite a few from my first pregnancy and you only wear them for a short time anyway. As consolation, I figure things like accessories, shoes, and makeup are all perfectly legitimate purchases when you're pregnant :) And I just love the sunglasses from BP because they're so cheap (that way I don't feel bad if Henry breaks them!) and I actually got another mirrored pair that I can't find online but that are super cute and fun for summer :)

Watching: I'm loving The Bachelorette this season, even though I really don't like when they do those two night episodes and then skip a week like they did this week. Normally I don't like the Bachelorette as much as the Bachelor, but this season I'm really into it! And although Cam refuses to watch the Bachelor/Bachelorette with me, I convinced him to watch UnREAL with me, which is kind of a dark satire of the Bachelor. We just started Season 1 and so far I like it! And then for some reason, Cam decides to start re-watching The Office from the beginning on Netflix and so that's always good to turn on an episode at night when we're tired and don't want to watch anything too heavy :) I've also been enjoying The Mindy Project; I feel like after being kind of weird and not funny for awhile, it's back in it's groove. And we'll probably start watching Season 4 of OITNB since it's out today, although I thought last season was kind of slow and boring? And then I'm excited for season 2 of Odd Mom Out! I feel like I don't hear people talking about this show, but I thought season 1 was hysterical!

Feeling: Saddened by the state of our world. It's hard not to
have a heavy heart this week after the tragedy in Orlando, and then on
top of that, there's so much constant noise on social media during an election season anyway, but especially when it's depressing as this one, the negativity is just draining. (Not to mention all the sad things that I feel like are constantly in the news about little kids getting killed or injured) Being pregnant, it's honestly a little hard
not to feel a little depressed about the hurting world that this baby
is going to be born into, but all I can do is just try and focus on the
good and try my best to raise my children to try and make things better. And then staying off Facebook usually helps too :)

4 comments:

I feel like I need to get some recipe ideas from you! I am not a great cook and need some inspiration :) I love the layout of this post, it will be fun to see how each category changes as your pregnancy goes on!